The Intern
by x Ruby Dust x
Summary: sequel to 'The Assistant'. House is forced into presiding over an intern. How will he handle it? Only like House would of course!...How will Cuddy take this defiance? caution: SEX.MILD LANGUAGE. REVIEW
1. Chapter 1

**The Intern **

Chapter One

Cuddy let herself into House's office with a smug, yet satisfied look sprawled across her thin cheekbones. Her arms crossed, and her foot tapping in anticipation, she glanced around the room for the familiar scruffy face she loved to see frown. Too bad House wasn't there.

Nicole sat at her desk on the opposite side of the room, mindlessly leafing through a magazine and blasting "The Suffering" (by Coheed and Cambria) on her iPod. Cuddy tapped her on the shoulder, startling her and causing her to fall out of her chair. "Jeez, Aunt Lisa!" Nicole part laughed, part scowled as she plucked her headphones out of her ears and picked herself up off the carpeting. She gathered herself, smooth her skirt, then sat back down.

"Where's House?" Cuddy barked, anxiously waiting for a reply. She wanted to see House's face when he heard this news, which means she wanted to be the one to tell him.

"Dunno. Clinic duty?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes at her niece. "I wish he was in the clinic. Seriously, where is he?"

"I don't know. He hasn't come in yet."

"It's ten o'clock!" She sighed, throwing her arms into the air. Apparently, her new would have to wait. "As soon as he comes in, I want to see him in my office."

"That might not be possible..." Nicole contorted her face into a worried look.

Cuddy stopped before taking her leave. She turned to her niece with a scowl on her face so fierce, it made Nicole cringe. Her seemingly good day, with an opportunity to annoy House, was quickly turning into an upsetting disappointment. "Why not?!"

Nicole stood from her chair, throwing her hands in the air. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger!"

Cuddy's expression softened. "Why?"

"He can, I lied. Why do you want to see him?"

"No reason."

"Apparently there is since you went from zero to crazy in two seconds flat. What's going on?"

Cuddy thought a moment, pondering whether she should let her information slip. "Can I trust you?"

"Aunt Lisa, I'm family. Since when couldn't you trust me?"

"Since you started working for House." Cuddy sighed. "Oh, okay. But you can't tell House."

Nicole nodded, placing three fingers in the air. "Scout's honor."

"Okay. Well there's this really talented and genius girl who just transferred to a college around here. She's starting her internship this year. She's going into diagnostic medicine and_ requested_ to have House as her mentor. Not only that, but..."

"HELL NO!" House screamed, looming over Cuddy.

"How long has he been there?" Cuddy continued to sigh. Her happy moment was ruined, and she knew that this was the foreshadowing of a boring, dreary day. Until House found some way to torture her, that it.

"The entire time." Nicole frowned.

"Great." She turned to House, trying to have an authoritive air about her. "House, before you say..."

"Too late. I believe I already said...uh...what was it...oh yeah. Hell no! I am not going to have some whiney little intern following me around all day and asking me annoying little questions while I am trying to save people's lives. I have Nicole for that!"

"Hey!" Nicole protested.

"I was making a point..." House bobbed his head. Less than ten minutes in this building and he was already getting a headache. "No, no, no, no, and no. Give her to Wilson."

"She'd probably end up there anyway." Nicole mumbled, walking out of the room and heading for the nurses station.

"Too late. I already said she could and she's coming today." Cuddy was hoping to leave the conversation at that, but House stopped her from leaving.

"You did that without consulting me?"

"You seem shocked." She retorted, trying to get by him. He stuck his cane in front of the door, preventing her from making an exit, whatsoever. "You do this sort of thing all the time. You hired and assistant without consulting me..."

"Oh, you know you had your hand in that cookie jar the entire time."

Cuddy pushed passed his cane and opened the door for herself. "Her name is Jessica and she'll be here at noon, whether you like it or not."

"Good...cause I won't!" He yelled down the hall after her. Giving up with a sigh, House sat at his desk and grabbed his tennis ball from it's resting place. With precision, he threw the ball at the same spot on the wall, trying to figure out how to pawn this girl off on Wilson. If that washn't possible...one of his team.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Nicole leaned forward on the counter of the Nurse's Station, pretending to be looking a t a chart. Really, she was looking past the ink-filled papers and vanilla envelope. Walking down the hall, in the direction she was looking, was Chase. He sauntered down the corridor, not having seen her, and nodded at the patients greeting him.

Nicole smiled to herself, thinking of all the events that had happened in the short six months they had been dating. Getting lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed him walk up behind her and grab her hips. "Whatcha thinkin' about?" He whispered, purposely breathing in her ear. He knew she hated it, but it made her smile. He loved her smile.

"Chase!" She laughed, pulling away from him. "Stop! You're at work..."

"On the contrary. . . I just got off clinic duty and I still have five more minutes before I start House's work." He took her hands and laced his fingers in between hers. He leaned in to kiss her, but she moved her head.

"Well I don't. I'm on the clock." He gave up on the kiss, but refused to let her hands go. "Cuddy should be coming this way soon. Who knows what she'll do to the employee that's compromising her young, innocent niece."

"And why isn't she in her office, pacing and trying how to keep House under control while pretending she's contemplating something else?"

"She had big news this morning." Chase watched her, waiting for her to elaborate. "There's an intern. Apparently she's some whiz kid who deserves nothing less than House as her mentor."

"House would never go for that." Cameron walked up to them, already in her white lab coat. "What happened after she told him?"

"They had a battle of the wits, like always. I dunno, I didn't stay." Nicole finally freed herself from Chase's grasp and turned back to lean against the counter again.

Cuddy came storming down the hall, her heels making a loud "clicking" noise she she stomped. Rushing past them, she headed to her office. "What was that about?" Foreman asked as he placed his stethoscope around his neck.

"Too late. I already told the story." Nicole laughed, walking in the opposite direction of her aunt. "Time for work, fellow ducklings." She continued as the rest of them followed her.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

House threw his ball at the wall harder than ever. "Trying to renovate, are we?" Nicole smirked, taking her seat at her desk.

"What do we have?" He growled, ignoring Nicole's statement. "This better be good."

"...Testy... Okay then." Nicole sighed, looking from duckling to duckling. She handed Chase the file she had been looking at before. He handed it to House.

House snapped open the folder and fingered through the pages. He closed it just as forcefully and slapped it on his desk. "Cuddy gave me this a week ago and I said 'no'. What makes you think that I changed my mind?" His tone was less harsh, but the cynicism that shown through was enough to make anyone cringe.

"Because there's nothing else." Nicole retorted, standing and crossing her arms. "There was nothing you liked last week so you missed your quota. Therefore, you don't get paid for last week. There's nothing except this this week. Your options at this point: you take this case or you don't get paid for this week either."

"If this woman lived for a week after I was supposed to treat her and didn't, she isn't in extreme need of my care."

Nicole was getting annoyed. If House wasn't getting paid, then she wasn't getting paid and she wouldn't stand for it. "You're taking this case. I don't care if you cure her over the phone. . . God knows you've done that before. . . but you are going to cure her of whatever's wrong. Deal with it."

This soured his mood even more, but he didn't want to get into another fight. At least not yet. "As soon as I refuel my insult meter, you're going down." He mumbled, putting his feet on his desk.

"Can't wait." She took the file from his desk and handed it to Cameron. She left to room, followed by Foreman and Chase. Nicole, however, stayed. "Look, I know the whole 'intern' thing is annoying the shit out of you, but don't take it out on your team. After all, you're going to need to pedal the genius off at least one of them."

House stared at her for an extremely intense moment, then opened his mouth. "Shouldn't you be taking my patient's history right about now?" He sneered. While watching his assistant leave in the same manner her aunt had, House tipped his head back and popped a pill into his mouth. "Damn Cuddy."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Nicole stood at the patient's bedside, hugging the chart to her chest. "Dolores Endalstein, fifty-four. Symptoms include chronic headaches, low-grade fever, constant fatigue, muscle pain, and lymphadenopathy."

Chase stepped up and placed the drum of his stethoscope against her heart. "Ms. Endalstein, have you been having any night sweats, tremors,..."

"Epidemic neuromyasthenia, benign myalgic encephalomyelitis." House grumbled, hobbling into the room.

"Iceland disease?" Foreman squinted his eyes as he looked at the patient. "How can you tell?"

"Just run the test..." He turned to leave, but Cameron caught his arm.

"...but Iceland disease is most common in younger woman..."

"Run the test!" He barked. He knew that would be his last angry moment of the day, at least that other people would see. Outside the room, he watched as his team prepared everything to confirm the diagnosis and set up treatment. He would never admit to it, but House loved when they questioned him, it made him feel superior. He needed that feeling after the morning he's had.

Nicole glanced at him through the glass doors. He waved a hand, signaling for her to join him out in the hall. "See how easy that was?" She smirked, standing at his side.

House rolled his eyes, followed by deep breath. "Did you take your pills today?"

Nicole stepped back, a hand raising to her chest in disbelief. "What?"

"You yelled at me before. Either you're PMSing or you didn't take your meds. Now it narrows that down to the latter because when your 'Aunt Flo' comes for a visit, Chase is almost as miserable as you...," House lifted his cane and pointed to Chase who was still attending to the patient, "...and he seems relatively chipper. So, I ask again. Did you take your pills today?"

"I forgot, okay. It's not like I'm going to die for missing one day. Right?"

"Oh, but how wrong you are. See, your Wilson's may not kill you, but I just might. I'm in for a long day, I accept and loathe that, and you don't want to make it worse." House turned away from her and started walking down the hall, towards his office. When he noticed she wasn't following, he stopped and coughed loudly. "What part of our job description are we forgetting?"

Nicole walked up to him and waited for him to turn around. "Let's see... I already did the patient's history. That leaves watching you stare at your white board, watching you play with your ball... which is not half as amusing as it sounds, but I'll do those later. Then what? Pay for your lunch? No, that's Wilson. Take you out to dinner. No, still Wilson..."

"Is this going to end sometime before Armageddon?"

"Hold on, almost there. Kiss your ass? Cuddy. Not to mention Chase, Foreman, and Cameron. Oh... I remember!" Nicole moved so she was inches from his face, and made her eyes grow as big as they could while still allowing her to bat her eyelashes. "Dr. House, has anyone ever told you you are absolutely the best, smartest, and most handsome doctor in the entire world?!"

"Am I interrupting something?" A small, mousy girl came sliding up to them. "Dr. House," she squeaked, clicking her heels and pulling on the hem of her skirt, "My name is Jessica Harris. I'm your..."

"Where's Cameron?"

**A/N:**

I will be the first one to openly admit that these chapters are very short. I will also admit that i made a promise that i would be working on this over Christmas break, and have not. simple reasoning: i hate my father. downstairs, where our computer is, is where he usually is and i can't stand to be around him. mostly because he completely doesn't trust me and is constantly looking over my shoulder. I HATE THAT! so, this holiday season i made every effort to ignore him, and the triple F (Forced Family Fun).

sorry for the rambling, but i'm usually a person of my word. i felt i needed a chance to explain myself...

Anyhoo... i hope you like it so far and continue to review!

Ruby


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

House made a clear point to avoid this situation at all costs. First he handed her off on Cameron. Then, after lunch, she shadowed Chase. Finally Foreman. "Why?" Nicole asked, presenting a tray full of food in front of her boss.

"Why, what?" He snapped, sinking his teeth into a bologna sandwich. In his recent effort to avoid Jessica, House had sealed himself in an empty clinic exam room. He made himself at home (laying on the table), and pulled out his portable t.v. as he ate.

"Why such an elaborate game of hide and seek?" Nicole asked, sitting next to him and grabbing a sandwich himself. House gave her a side-ways glance. "What? Wilson's not here today."

"Wilson's not here?" He swung his feet over the side of the table, pushed the antenna of his t.v. back down, then grabbed his cane and continued towards the doorway.

"Whoa, I thought you were trying to avoid what's-her-face." House stopped, his hand grasping the handle, and slyly glanced through the blinds. "Now what are you doing?"

"Do I pay you to question me?" The look he got in response made loosen his shoulders as he sighed. "Think about it. If Wilson's not here, there's no need for anyone to go in his office."

But sure enough, as soon as House turned the handle and opened the door, Cuddy popped out from around the corner. She had a scary scowl wiped across her face, but that only added to the horrific body language she was giving off in her wake. Also in her wake, Jessica. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Um..." He stared at the ceiling sarcastically, thinking of some snappy comeback. He looked to his assistant. "What am I doing?"She shrugged, grabbing her sandwich and heading in the opposite direction of her furious aunt. "Coward!" He yelled after her. Turning back to Cuddy, he continued to comment, "I see you've found her. Man, I never was good at hide and seek. You win again."

"I found her with Chase." Cuddy was fuming. If it were possible, steam would be scorching from her ears. She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and said calmly, "What did I tell you this morning?"

"Oh, Greg. Don't stop, don't stop." He retaliated. Jessica snickered into her fist.

"HOUSE... just take her. Let her shadow you. That's all you have to do." Cuddy put her hands in the air, clearly giving up.

"Dr. House?" Jessica stepped up, holding a notebook close to her chest.

"Shut up and follow me." He grumbled, popping a Vicodin into his mouth and limping down the hall.

- - - - - - - - - -

Nicole walked down the hall, laughing to herself about what just happened. House was going to be furious at her, what with her leaving him all alone with his intern, but it was still extremely funny.

She walked into his office, closed the blinds and sat down at her desk. Picking up where she left off earlier, she put her headphones back into her ears and turned her iPod on. Rocking back and forth, slightly, in her chair, she started singing to herself...

"hmm, hmm, hmm, sinking with each step. Scared of what might be next, for me in this game we've played for so long. My instincts disappear. The only voice I hear, is telling me to run away from here." ("Waiting" by Not Forgotten.)

Chase let himself into the room, watching Nicole with wide eyes. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his lab coat and turned the velvet box inside between his fingers. She heard him, and swivelled her chair in his direction. "Hey," She cooed, getting up from her seat and walking over to where he stood.

Chase quickly removed his hand from his pocket and placed it on her cheek, brushing the soft spot with the pad of this thumb. "Hi." He leaned in to kiss her, but Cameron came walking into the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

House sat at his desk, a moist cloth over his eyes and his feet elevated. This was turning out to be the worst day ever, and he would be the first one to raise his hand and proclaim so. Jessica was seated at Nicole's desk, staring at him with the wide innocent, virgin eyes of a new med student.

"Dr. House?"

House ignored her, hoping she would turn tail and run if he held out long enough. She continued to repeat his name over and over, until the tone of her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. "WHAT!?" He tried not to yell. Really, he did.

Once he caught her eye, her gaze reverted to her feet. She was contemplating whether she should continue, or just sit and shut up. The former won. "Is this all we're going to be doing today?"

It was like Nicole's first day all over again, only he was _actually _doing something that day. "Nope. I may go get food later."

His young protege was about to let out one of her annoying, slightly unintelligent questions (House kept wondering when he was going to see her whiz-kid reputation pop up), but all his ducklings came through the door in time to stop her. Nicole was leading.

"You have another case." She smiled, flashing a blue envelope this time in his line of sight.

"No I don't. I _had _a case. This morning. Remember?"

"Okay, you're going to stop forming small sentences while I explain why. Believe me, you're not going to want to pass this up." She balanced on her hip as she opened the file an read to them. "Twenty-four year old Kie Jones. Shows symptoms of meningitis, emphatic coughing slash wheezing, and a skin condition."

"And that's supposed to pique my curiosity? A college student with a disease that's common for said student and a rash?" His feet left the desk and planted firmly on the floor.

"Yes, yes, and not a rash. More like a horn." Chase winced. After all, it was quite a sight. Disturbing and gross, but a sight none the less. "Two. On either side of the head."

House looked from one duckling to the other, studying each of their actions. "A horn?"

"Two." Cameron nodded, placing her hands in her pockets.

Nicole shook her head as she handed him the folder. "Did I mention the patient happened to be a porn star?" She smiled, showing him the paperwork.

House stood, straightened his jacket, took his cane in his grasp, and limped out of the room. "You should have opened with that." Chase laughed, watching his boss scurry down the hall and the intern run to keep up with him.

"No, not really." She knew how to manipulate him by now. "I didn't exactly tell him the whole truth."

"She's not a porn star?" Foreman questioned, as all of them slowly followed.

"No, _he_ is a porn star."

**short and sweet. sorry for the lack of updates, but the research on this is taking longer than planned. **

**REVIEW!**

**Ruby**


	6. Chapter 6

**really sorry about another short chapter. i just can't write actual people (as something that COULD be real...) like i can with fictional characters. i dunno.**

**again, sorry. i hope the next chapter is going to be longer. i set it up so a couple things are going to be going on so maybe that will help with the length. also, you're going to see a bit more into Jessica's character next chapter. **

**hope you enjoy!**

**Ruby**

Chapter Six

House strutted into the room, finding it hard to walk without his cane, but managing to do so anyway. He saw his "patient", bending over the bed to reach for something on the floor. Straightening his jacket, and puffing out his chest, House made his presence known. "Ahem," he subtly coughed, looking at the patient's exposed backside. "You know, those gowns don't really stay shut..." He faded away, marveling in the perfectly chiseled butt of his subject.

He thought he was being coy.

Kie Jones sat bolt upright, startled at hearing House's voice. He brushed his long brown hair from his eyes, then turned towards the sound of the voice.

House froze, seeing the boy's chiseled face. A defined, yet unnecessary feature of this porn star. Unfortunately, Kie's good looks were only his second prominent feature, next to the masses sticking out from both sides of his head with surrounded by dark patches of crusty skin.

Nicole walked into the room, followed by the other ducklings and the new one. Looking at the stern frown on her boss's face, she backed past all of the doctors and stepped back into the hallway. "You lied!" House barked, extremely disappointed. Not at his employee, but at the fact that there was a _male_ porn star in his care. In House's world, there were no male porn stars.

"You tell us to lie all the time!" She yelled back

"Not to me!" He hadn't noticed that Jessica was observing him through the glass. "To Cuddy...to everyone else... NOT ME!"

Nicole grimaced, placing her hands firmly on her hips. "Do you really want to get in this with me now? When I'm off medication and technically insane?"

House loosened, leaning back on his cane. He wasn't about to get into fight, verbal or physical, with his assistant who, as he learned the hard way, had extremely unusual upper body strength for someone her size. Not a good idea.

"You can't tell me that _that_ in there doesn't give you the slightest curiosity." She also loosened her stance. Nicole took him by the wrist and pulled him back into the room. "Give the kid ten minutes. Diagnose him. If you haven't by the end of those ten minutes, then you can continue to diagnose him from your office."

House, being as ignorant as he was, refused to say anything for those ten minutes.

- - - - - - - -

The all took their normal seats in the conference room, watching House pace back and forth with a orange marker clasped in his teeth.

"Differential." He barked through the marker, also motioning for Jessica to find a seat. "I'm the only one that gets to stand today. All eyes on me." He turned back to his assistant, seated close to the door. "List the symptoms." As she spoke, he wrote the list on the white board:

symptoms of meningitis

emphatic coughing and wheezing

skin condition (House just bluntly wrote "horns")

"...and the nurse has here that he just recently spiked a temperature of 104, which has decreased within the last hour." Nicole finished, passing the folder from doctor to doctor.

"Is he _actually_ a college student?" House asked, squinting at the board.

"No. He just does his...scenes...at a college dorm." Nicole hesitated. "Why?"

"Because that means we can cross off the meningitis from the list." He mumbled. He pulled a chair from the table and took his own seat. Twirling his cane between his fingers, he set his feet up on the tray at the bottom of the board. "This isn't enough." He sighed, rubbing his forehead with the other hand. "Foreman and Chase, do labs. As many as you can to get more information without possible killing him. Nicole, get the results then take the newbie to search the house. Cameron can go to the dorm."

"Why me?" Cameron asked, surprised but still slightly not.

"I thought you would want to lecture them on morale values. Sex is bad...Selling yourself for money is wrong... Say 'no' to drugs..." He continued with others, but his team had left the room.

He rooted around in his jeans until he found his cellphone. He flipped it open, dialed a single number, then held it to his ear until Wilson answered. "Where are you?" He barked. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

_I had some vacation days..._

"Yeah, and I'm in love with Cuddy."

_Well that would explain a lot..._

"A porn star with horns. Go!"

_What?_

"I have a twenty-four year old porn star with horns."

_And... that's a problem?_

"It's a guy!"


	7. Chapter 7

**boo...not as long as i hoped... oh well. **

**i can't believe i have to say this... PLEASE REVIEW! let me know what's going on in your pretty little heads!**

**Ruby**

Chapter Seven

Jessica stood in the middle of the sidewalk, watching Nicole scale the fence in front of the patient's house. Nicole motioned to her accomplice, opening the gate from the other side. "You'll want to wear pants next time." She laughed, pointing to Jessica's pleated skirt.

Her spine stuck up pin straight as Jessica now stood in the middle of the patient's driveway. Nicole walked though the snowy lawn, and began searching for a key on the porch of Kie's upperclass home. "What exactly are we looking for?" Jessica asked, shuffling her feet in a nervous fashion.

Nicole ignored her and continued scouring the surrounding for something capable of harboring a key. "A key." She mindlessly mumbled, confirming it to herself more that answering Jessica's question. Her search was hopeless. Nothing under the mat. No false stones in the landscaping. There were no window ledges reachable form where she stood.

"We're going inside?" Pretending to be looking in some flower boxes, Jessica's eyes darted around the neighborhood for anything resembling a police car.

Nicole had given up her search. "The damn kid doesn't have a extra key around!?" She sighed, wiping some sweat from her forehead. She jiggled the handle to the front door one more time to confirm that she was going to have to find another way in.

Jessica brushed several curly ringlets out of her eyes as she fought the winter wind while trying to keep up with Nicole. They headed towards the back of the house, where another door was located. "Isn't this breaking and entering?"

There was a large tree in the backyard reaching up to the roof of the house. "You mean technically?" Nicole asked back, kind of getting annoyed at all the questions. She measured the tree, wondering if she should climb it to find an open window. Thinking better of it, she tried the first floor window's first. None of them were open, but one was loose enough to possibly open. She took some rubber surgical gloves out of her bag, slipped them on, and wiggled her fingers under the window frame. Once she managed to crack it open, she slipped her arm under and unhooked the lock. "Don't breath." She instructed, yanking the rest of the window open.

Jessica's cheeks puffed out, full of air, as Nicole searched her bag for two face masks. She handed one to the intern, then slipped hers over her head. Jessica let her air out, then followed suite. "What was that for?"

"Could be something in the air that made him sick."

"I thought he only had...horns?"

"Do you sprout extra appendages every time you have a fever? I don't think so." Nicole shook her head, wondering how this girl was so incredibly special. She hoisted herself through the window, then landed firmly on the polished wooden floor inside. Leaning out the window, she offered to help Jessica. "I don't have any extra gloves so don't touch anything."

"Do you do stuff like this often?"

"Uh...when House asks." Now it was getting really annoying. Did this girl really need to know all this? She brushed it off, starting her search. "Whatever looks useful, point it out."

"You and Dr. House have quite a relationship, don't you?" There was a tinge of jealousy in her voice.

"You could say that."

"He listens to you. He backs down from you." She followed Nicole from the hallway (where they broke in), into the kitchen. "How can I make him do that."

Nicole stopped her search, turned to Jessica, and brought her brows to the center of her forehead in a confused, and suspicious, manner. "Why?"

"All I want is for him to teach me." She sighed, looking all innocent and childlike. Truthfully, it was just mostly pathetic.

"Well, that is easier said than done." Nicole turned back to her search, opening and closing cabinets and drawers. "In this business you need to learn to be an asshole if you ever want to get anywhere. Or so House says. Really, it's not that far from the truth, what with all the malpractice suites these days. If House'll teach you anything, it's that you have to learn to fend for yourself. At least that's what I've learned from him. That, and that everyone...EVERYONE...lies."

Jessica paused awkwardly, stopping in a doorway to the living room. She stared at her feet as she folded one foot over the other. "Does...Cuddy...know about all of this?"

"She has a clue but...wait. Why do you ask?"

"You just said yourself that I have to look out for myself. If Cuddy knew that you were doing all this stuff...having an affair with her boyfriend...breaking into houses...forcing Dr. House to give medical care...being legally insane while working with sick patients...there'd be more room for me without to get into Dr. House's good graces."

"Woah! Are you...are you bribing me?" Nicole began to laugh, almost pulling her mask off for more air but then thinking better of it. "Are you kidding me?!"

"You just said..."

"Sweetie, forget what I just said!" Nicole grabbed her sides to keep them from splitting, crouching into a ball until she regained her composure. "If _you're_ going to blackmail someone...please...learn your shit, okay."

"What do you...?"

"I _mean_ that almost everything you've said was dead WRONG!" She stood straight, wiping the tears from her eyes with her forearm. "One: Cuddy is NOT dating House. Two: We've all broken into a house so far...Cuddy doesn't even know about it. Even if she does, she yells at House then overlooks it. Three: I am NOT and never will, have anymore than a relationship with House than his ASSISTANT! The man saved my life, and I owe him big time, plus I'm dating Chase. Which leads to four: I have Wilson's disease. The copper deposits shifted to the frontal lobe of my brain, making me a little temperamental when I don't take my meds. Not insane. Five: He backs down to me because he knows that I won't take his bullshit and he can't fire me. Six: I'm not a doctor, I can't force medical care on anyone. Seven: House can't fire me, and Cuddy never would. _I'm_ her niece. _I'm_ staying put." She managed to stifle her laughs long enough to realize that she found the whole conversation extremely insulting. "Please, don't become a detective because you suck."

Jessica continued to stare blankly at her feet, completely embarrassed of the entire situation.

_- - - - - - - - - _

Chase stared at the monitor in front of his, staying alert for any signs of change in the patient's vitals. It was close to midnight, and the team hadn't gotten any closer to a diagnoses. The whole thing didn't make sense to any of them. How did horns, which were concluded not to be cancerous or anywhere near a tumor from the test he and Foreman had run this afternoon. It seemed he had meningitis, but all the tests had come back negative.

Kie had started coughing worse within the last half hour. He had started vomiting, and was complaining of nausea and a headache, and his fever had spiked several times. All common symptoms of meningitis.

Nicole slowly entered the room, seeing Chase's head fall from it's upright position to the middled of his chest. She ran her fingers gingerly over his shoulders, waking him gently. "You should go home." She whispered, looking at an also snoozing Kie. "Cameron said she's going to stay until they get the results of his skin graph and all the labs on the things she found at the dorm. I can ask her to watch over him."

Chases nodded sleepily. Rising from his seat, Nicole placed herself under his arm. They left together that night.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **short chapter. Just something to get the creative juices going. I have to say one thing, the whole Cameron/Chase thing going on on the show right now is really annoying me. I don't know why, but I think it's horrible...

**WARNING: SEX SCENE- **if this kind of content offends anyone, just skip this chapter. It won't ruin the rest of the story for you. Promise.

Chapter Eight

Chase traced the line of her chin with his thumb, every moment he had ever spent with her rushed past his eyes like it all happened yesterday. He loved this woman, he was sure. He wanted her to be with him the rest of his life, and he knew she would. She smiled at him, flashing the right amount of teeth in just the way that made his insides crawl. "What's going on with you?" The sound of her voice sent shivers up his spine.

"Why?"

"You seem so... I dunno..."

He continued his advance, his hands moving farther south. A knot formed in Nicole's stomach, something that told her to be nervous. She was never nervous with him before, so she didn't quite understand the feeling now. He lifted her small, fragile body up until she met his eyes. He kissed her. Oh, how he loved her kisses. Open mouthed, tongue-dueling, teasing, mint flavored kisses that reached his core. The knot in her stomach unraveled in shear ecstacy as he mumbled the words, "I love you," as he moved his kisses to her neck.

His hands gently passed over her shoulders and down to the hem of her shirt, removing it from her elegant frame. She wrapped her legs around his torso and her arms around his shoulders. He intricately placed kisses around her neck as he laid her on the bed, applying his full body weight to her. He rubbed his hands all over her body as they found the lining of her jeans. He quickly removed them.

Moving from her neck to her torso, Chase cupped her breast in his hands as he slowly traced the lining of her nipple with his tongue. Nicole wanted to scream, but she let it die in her throat. She struggled with his belt, as he unzipped his jeans. Reaching in his pocket before letting them drop to the floor, he pulled a condom form his wallet and handed to her. When his boxers were removed, she helped him slip it on.

He undressed the rest by himself then, gripping her thighs, slid her panties from her pelvis to the floor. He stepped between her legs and resumed his position on top of her, their tongues finding each other. He sank into her. Hard at first. So hard, he made her cry out in pain. "Damn." He sighed, moving his mouth to my ear. "I'll make it better, I promise."

And he did. He moved with a urgent, grinding beat. Her fingers traced his hairline to his shoulder, where she clasped for support. And leverage. Touching his bare flesh, she arched her back and writhed closer to him, felling the rolls of sensation he was giving her.

Nicole's body locked with muscle tension as she dug her nails into his shoulder. He didn't seem to mind all too much. His hands grasped her butt, lifting her pelvis towards his pumping hips. With one last sensational plunge, an orgasm ripped through all her tension and made her body go limp. He pulled out, rolled off of her, and lay panting at her side.

He mustered up all the courage he had and trapped it in his chest. It was now or never. "Nicole, would you marry me?"


	9. Chapter 9

** i was just soooooo happy that Cameron and Chase "broke up" last night, i was inspired to write this. hope it's as good as i feel. i mean...the ickiness is over...YES! let's just hope it lasts!**

**REVIEW!**

**Ruby**

**p.s. how funny was that old lady? hiring a female prostitute... doing coke off a homosexual's stomach... then sleeping with some other dude... 58 years old too...i cracked up!**

Chapter Nine

Nicole stepped from the shower, beads of water still dripping down her frame as she reached for a towel. Chase was in the bathroom, fixing as quick shower for himself before they both rushed to work. She watched his reflection move in the mirror, thinking of the wave of astonishment that had hit her.

He was upset with her, and she knew it. She expected it, even, after what had happened. He had proposed, and she had turned a cheek to him, not knowing just what to say. They haven't spoken since.

She wanted to marry him. Really, she did. She had been planning their wedding ever since high school, when they first started their relationship. So why wasn't she able to say anything then? Or now, for that matter? Why couldn't she just tell him what she really wanted to.

YES!

_- - - - - - -_

House practically pranced into his office that morning, weighing the fact that today COULD NOT be as bad as yesterday. No where to go but up, was his mentality. If he had any say in it, it would stay that way. Popping a vicodin in his mouth, he set himself up at his desk and pulled out his Gameboy. In the middle of jumping his little red dune-buggy over a cliff and watching it smash into little pieces, his team walked in. "Intern not here today?" It really was turning out to be a good day.

Cameron sat herself on the edge of his desk, only slightly aware that House was trying to look up her skirt. "She doesn't start until noon."

House checked his watch. 9:42 am. Damn. "I'll take it."

"You seem relatively...happy?" Foreman smirked, shoving his hands in to the pockets of his white coat after buttoning it.

House's mouth gaped open as he bulged his eyes like he was about to make a sarcastic comment. He held it back though, just rolling with the mood that he had set for himself. "How's the porn star?"

"Kie." Nicole produced the blue file one more time. "He's not responding to the antibiotics we were giving him for the meningitis. That, and he's been profusely vomiting since 4 am."

"You gave him the penicillin? The medicine I told you?" House was baffled, thinking that this was going to be as easy as his other patient this week. Apparently not the case. He was surprised, for sure, but he wasn't about to show it. Again, not if he could help it.

"Kie's allergic to penicillin. I had Foreman start him on a high intravenous dose of cephalosporins instead. We fucked up somewhere, I just don't know where." Nicole took a deep breath, the slowly exhaled. She liked this kid, porn star or not. She wanted him to live. Not that she wanted other patients to die. But still... And Chase was watching her. His gaze was burning a hole in the back of her head, and he thought she hadn't noticed.

"Labs?"

"We did everything. Tox screen. MRI. X-Ray. Everything that wouldn't kill him. Like you said." Chase defended.

"Results?"

"Nothing conclusive."

"Is there anything else we know about the kid, medically?" House's fingers were at his chin, forming the finger-pyramid of contemplation.

"He told me he had a cold last week. Fever, cough...nothing we don't already see."

House got up from his once happy spot and limped over to the conference room for the companionship of his white board. He scribbled the seemingly hopeless symptoms next to the previously scrawled ones. He stood in this position for several moments, glaring at the board with intensity seizing through him. "So if he's not responding to the antibiotics, then it's not meningitis. What looks like meningitis, talks like meningitis, and walks like meningitis?"

"Uh...meningitis." Foreman scoffed, seeing the pointlessness in this situation.

Cameron made a small "tch" sound with her tongue against her lips. It was a disapproval noise. "What about and autoimmune disease? Something making him look like he just has a cold?" Nicole took a moment to notice that Cameron, no matter what the symptoms, always turned to autoimmune first. She was the only one whoever suggested it, and she was usually wrong.

Thinking of this, Nicole raised her eyes towards House. And idea of her own was forming and, although she wasn't a doctor, she figured maybe her opinion could help. "What if... what if the horns and the other symptoms are two totally different things."

"Oh, it's just a coincidence that this guy is a freak of nature?" Chase smirked as Cameron nudged him in the ribs. Nicole also noticed that Cameron was the first one to issue out punishment for insensitivity.

"Well...there have been stranger things happen." Foreman liked this idea. Maybe it was just because it was furthering the diagnosis.

"I've read about it. Keratosis follicularis." Nicole was just proud that she pronounced it right at this point.

"Darier's disease?" Cameron raised an eyebrow. "How can we give a diagnosis of something like with the definition so vague?"

"Darier's disease is defined as any skin condition marked with the formation of horn-y growths." House snickered as Nicole said horny. "The cause is unknown, and there's no specific therapy for it except the prescription of keratolytic lotions and moistening skin regiments to prevent cracking, drying, and skin breakdown. There were tons of lotions in his house. I just assumed they were for the...porn."

House erased the "horns" symptom on the whiteboard and resumed his happy mood. "Do you think he always played the 'sneaky-little-devil' type in his movies."

The entire team let out a long sigh as they collected their things and continued with their work. One symptom down, but that didn't mean that this kid couldn't die. Actually, it really didn't mean anything other than he had horns. Sad, and slightly funny (to House), but realistic.

As the ducklings followed one another out of the room, Jessica made her appearance in front of House. "So... what did I miss?"

House mumbled some obscenities and checked his watch again. 10:45 am. She was early, and that ruined his good day. "You're an over-achiever, aren't you?" He sarcastically asked as another vicodin made his way through his lips and down his throat.

Time to annoy Cuddy a little.


	10. Chapter 10

**just a comment...last night's episode was way creepy. genius on so many levels...but all these characters hooking up (or possibly hookin up, in House and Cuddy's case) is just freakin me out... although, i think Cuddy and Wilson would be good together for some reason. hmmm...**

**anyway, onto the next chapter. **

**please review. **

**Ruby**

Chapter Ten

Nicole walked into Kie's room, sliding her feet across the floor so not to have the chunky heels of her boots make any noise. The twenty-four-year-old was looking positively deadly. He was sleeping, slumped over to the right side of his bed and his hand was almost grazing the floor. His bed sheets, once white, where now stained from his night of vomiting and crumpled around his knees.

Gingerly, she walked over to his bedside and sat next to him. Taking some aloe lotion from the bag she had strapped around her shoulder, she squeezed some from the bottle and lightly dabbed it on the cracking skin around his "horns". She pitied this man, although he probably didn't want to be pitied. As she finished her own personal treatment, Kie began to stir as his head rolled on his pillow. Weakly opening his eyes, he blinked his vision back to look at his visitor. "I know you?" His voice was low and raspy. But Nicole could tell it was once proud and deep.

"I work with your doctor. Dr. House."

"Right," he shifted in his bed for a moment, "You took my medical history."

"Yeah." She smiled at him, trying to be comforting while hiding her other emotions. "I came to ask you if you knew you had Darier's disease?"

"Most of my life." He coughed. Nicole winced as he breathed on her. His breath was that bad, but her bedside manner happened to be quite strong.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I thought it was in my medical records."

Nicole shook her head as she approached a vertical base again. "There was nothing there. It showed me that you had _poor_ medical insurance, which is really the only reason my boss's boss is letting us treat you. So that means that you probably went to a free clinic to get diagnosed. A lot of times some free clinics are so overrun with patients that they really don't worry about paperwork too much."

Kie nodded and began closing his eyes once again. "What's wrong with me, then?"

Nicole took a deep breath through her mouth and slowly exhaled through her nose. Questions like these were the hardest to answer. "I'm not a doctor, but I can say that we're doing everything humanly possible. My boss is amazing at this sort of thing You'll be okay." She had let the words slip from her tongue before she could even comprehend of what she was saying. Clamping a hand over he mouth as she exited the room, Nicole walked until she found a deserted hallway and found a good wall to lean against. Sliding down said wall, until she was sitting, both her hands met on her forehead and she stared into her empty palms.

She shouldn't have said that. She shouldn't have said anything. If he died now, she was going to feel guilty. Worse, she had given him a false sense of comfort. If he was going to die, he wasn't going to know it. And that, in her opinion, was the worst way to die. Not knowing.

Chase had been walking back from the elevator, coming back from redoing some tests he had done on samples that Nicole and Jessica had taken from Kie's home. He held a clipboard in his hands tightly, wringing the wood without cutting his hands. Everything was inconclusive once again.

He was about to rejoin everyone in the conference room until he just happened to glance down the hallway where Nicole was sitting. He looked to the nurse's station - where everyone was talking medical jargon and whatnot - then back to the collapsed figure against the wall. Slowly, not taking his eyes off the nurse's station so no one would notice him coming this way, he sauntered towards her.

She picked her head up as the noise from his shoes met her eardrums. Surprised, she whipped the tears that were forming in her eyes - pushing them back - and stood. Dusting off her bottom, she was surprised when he embraced her instead of yelling at her. Nicole thought he would have been mad after this morning. Hell, she was mad at herself.

He pulled back, holding her at arms length with his hands resting on her shoulders. "Are you okay?" His words became softer with every syllable.

"I'm going back to his house." She mumbled, nodding her head.

"What?"

"There's nothing in the samples, right? It must be something airborne. Something we missed. A virus, a respiratory infection. Something. We need an air sample."

- - - - - - - -

House watched Cuddy pace in her office with a pained expression. He knew that Jessica was right behind him, watching over his shoulder and breathing down his neck. It gave him goose bumps.

Glancing at Cuddy's new male assistant (she seemed to going through them like flies nowadays), he quickly concocted a plan. "Hey...you...Max..."

"My name's Charlie."

"Right, Chuckie. Listen. Take this girl here to the records room and show her all the cases that I've solved so far." He turned to his intern, "Research. You never know if something could relate to the present case." She took him seriously and almost giggled when Charlie led her out the door.

Rolling his eyes at the admiration he was getting, House lowered his head and turned the handle to Cuddy's office.

Cuddy was startled when he entered, almost "jumping out of her own shoes". So to speak. "Don't you ever knock!?"

"Was that a question? Because I think we both know the answer to that."

Cuddy took her turn to roll her eyes at him. Again, another sex joke that she didn't fully comprehend. "If you don't mind, I'm in the middle of something."

"The faster you answer one of my questions, the faster I leave."

Cuddy mentally threw her hands in the air, taking control over House's bad mood yesterday. She walked to her desk and plopped down in her seat, rubbing her forehead while feeling an oncoming headache. "What?"

"Where's Wilson?"

"How should I know?"

House bobbed his head from side to side, feeling quite a rush of amusement coming over him. "Oh, please! Wilson never takes time off, which he claims he did. If he really did, then I trust you would be curious enough to at least ask where he's going. And, since he's such a sucker as he is, he would have told you. Then again, if he didn't really take time off, then you'd absolutely know where he is. Either way, you could answer my question without making this thoroughly difficult for you. I _will_ find out eventually."

"Don't you think that having you as a best friend is taxing as it is? Then there's being a doctor. A cancer doctor, to that. Maybe he just needed some time off to relax." For a minute, Cuddy was thinking of putting her feet on the desk in order to truly get comfortable. But remembering she was wearing a skirt, and who her present company was, she decided against it.

"We both know that 'relaxing' to Wilson would be spending an afternoon on _my_ couch. And I pretty sure that's he's not there. So, where is he?"

"Fine," she really was, for some reason, in no mood for this. "He went to visit his father."

House shriveled his nose in curiosity. "Wilson hates his father."

"Noooo... you hate your father. Can I get back to my work now?"

"One more question." He picked up his cane and headed towards the door. "Do you get paid to pace? Cause if you do, I want in on _that_ sweet deal..."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Nicole strode around the back of the house, looking to climb in the same window she had the first time over. Chase followed her, his brisk pace making his shoulder bag jump against his hip, almost knocking him off balance. He carried the masks and gloves this time. And, this time, there was enough for both of them. As the latex slid over her hand, Nicole turned to the window and tried to wiggle her fingers underneath once more. Nothing. The window had been closed shut. From the inside.

"Fuck!" She yelled, banging against the glass with her fist. "That damn intern."

Chase took a step back, knowing enough not to get in her way when she was fuming. "Let's just find another way in."

"There is no other way, the kid doesn't have an extra key. I would know. I looked." But as the words left her mouth, something sparked in Nicole's memory that sent a smile spread across her cheeks. "I take it back." The window upstairs was left open. She remembered seeing it the first time she was here, but mentally disposed of the information when she found the window on the first floor. Once again, she was set up for the task of scaling the tree.

With Chase hoisting her up to the first branch, Nicole continued to intricately place her hands along the settled bark, making her body stay as close to the trunk as possible. "How's you learn to climb like that?" Chase observed, shielding his eyes from the blaring sunlight.

"Let's just say there was no fence that could hold me out . . ." She grunted, pulling herself up higher until she was level with the window. It was cracked open on the bottom, just as she remembered. She took a moment to adjust her mask on securely, just in case it really was something in the air and not just Nicole's hopeful wishing.

She straddled the last branch, inching closer to the windowsill until she could stretch out her arms and feel the painted wood. Thrusting her arms upward, the window opened smoothly. As Nicole placed one foot into the opening, she happened to startle a mouse that was conveniently lounging on one of Kie's tables. Nicole shrieked and kicked at it, sending it scurrying into the adjacent room.

Chase yelled to her from the roots of the tree, a hand gently placed on the trunk and ready to climb if she needed help. "I'm fine...I just saw a mouse." She waited until her feet were firmly planted on the ground next to him to continue. "Jeez...you'd think_ I _wouldn't be afraid of a little mouse..."

Chase cocked his head upwards, squinting his eyes as he stared into the sky. "Did you say mouse?"

"No...when I said 'mouse', I really meant asparagus." Okay, maybe now wasn't the time for sarcasm. "Yeah. A little gray one. Why?"

He flipped his cellphone open and pressed it against his ear, a familiar busy signal echoing through the air. "Is there any droppings on the floor?" Nicole tightened her face at the question.

"I don't see and I am NOT looking."

"Fine. Just open the back door and let me in."

- - - - - - - - -

House found himself turning his cellphone off when the LCD read 'Wilson' across it. This was one mystery he was planning on solving on his own. In a single moment, all their conversations from the past month flashed through his memory, piecing together everything that could have been relevant to why Dr. James Wilson had been absent.

Foreman ran in to the room, "House! Kie just spiked a fever of 105 and rising. It started an hour ago, and the nurses can't get it down."

"And what am I supposed to do? I'm not God, you know..." His irritability was coming back. Damn.

"He's also showing signs of dementia. It's meningitis. It has to be." Foreman's arms folded across his chest.

"We've been treating him for meningitis and he's not doing any better... ergo..."

"Ergo, it's an advancing case of encephalitis."

House spun on his heels to see where the diagnosis had come from. Jessica. She was standing in his doorway, a confident smile placed on her shallow cheekbones. "It's not encephalitis." He put emphasis on the 'not'.

Jessica strode over to him with large, no-nonsense strides. The confidence was just irradiating out of her, and House was finding it more and more irritating with every passing second. Cameron had now entered the room behind her. "What about a STD? He is a porn star, after all."

House grumbled something under his breath before stating, "Porn stars are usually MORE careful than others."

"Let's at least consider it. This kid could have only hours to live, and do you really want another mystery death on your hands?" Cameron seated herself at the table, and Jessica sat next to her.

"It looks like meningitis and isn't..." She started to argue.

House gave a sarcastic laugh, "How observant of you. Someone's been paying attention for the past two days."

"Encephalitis fits. Almost perfectly, if not."

Cameron shook her head, "Herpes simplex virus."

Foreman sighed from the other end, "Meningitis. We just have to find another way to treat it."

House leaned back in his chair, throwing his head to the ceiling. The three started stating their arguments to each other, battling for House's approval. Jessica above all. His head was starting to hurt, but he couldn't find his vicodin in his pocket. His ears pricked with every whiny sentence. His thigh pricked and throbbed. He was in some sort of pain-filled, annoying hell.

He stood from his trance and wobbled to the glass partition, securing the door behind him and closing the blinds. Just when he was about to slip into what he thought would be a form of heaven - including clouds filled with pain killers and continuous _Journey _concerts - his office phone began to ring. It was from Nicole's cellphone. His finger slammed the "speaker phone" button as he barked an angry, "What?!"

Nicole's voice hit his ears with a certain melody that made his headache seem to disappear, "lymphocytic choriomeningitis!"

"What?" It was calmer than before.

"There are mice everywhere. Kie had a really bad rat problem. They... did their business... in his air vents, and Kie has central air conditioning. Both number one and two." House found a smile forming on his lips at her discomfort talking about a rat's excretory things.

The smile left as he hung up the phone, making his way back into the room with his arguing ducklings. Well, two ducklings and one... nuisance. "Lymphocytic choriomeningitis." they continued to fight until he repeated himself for a second time with a louder volume.

"But... shouldn't he be getting better on his own, then?" Jessica stammered, tears almost welling in her eyes because she so desperately wanted to impress him.

"You get worse before you get better, right? And since it's only been... two days... and since LCM takes fifteen to twenty-one days to cure itself... you can see where I'm going, right?" He turned his back to them, erasing his whiteboard. "Test him to be sure, then make sure the infection doesn't spread to his nervous system. Wouldn't want it to be fatal now, would we?"

- - - - - - - -

Nicole let herself into Kie's room one last time, thirteen says later. "Leaving already, huh?"

Kie smiled at her, flashing her his pearly whites. "Thanks. For everything." She blushed a little, allowing herself to sit in the chair and talk to him while he packed up his things. "So... in real people talk... what was really wrong with me?"

She shifted in her seat before answering, "I'm not your doctor, but Dr. Chase is down the hall if you really want to..."

"It seems to me," Kie interrupted, "that you have to know _something_ about medicine. Dr. Chase told me that you were the one to diagnose the Darier's disease, and later the LCM."

Nicole cocked her head at him in amusement. "I was a med student once. And Dr. Chase helped with the latter diagnosis. It seems to me, though, that you know a lot about medicine, too. Pronunciations, at least."

Kie hopped onto his bed with a boyish skip, "Only what they tell me. So...what about you and Dr. Chase?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, please! I simulate enough fake love to realize the real thing," he paused a second to cough, a symptom that his body was relieving itself of the virus. "I see the way you look at him... they way you say his name."

Then Nicole let something pass through her lips that she had wanted to admit for what seemed to be ages, but was only a day, "We're engaged." With that, she left Kie to finish getting his things together and to find Chase and tell him what he wanted to hear. "Yes." Even telling it to herself was satisfying.

Behind her, she could hear Kie yelling something after her. "And tell House that I do play the 'sneaky little devil'!"

Nicole giggled to herself, _Someone must have told him..._

- - - - - -

It had been almost two weeks since House had talked to Wilson, trying to figure out what his best friend was pulling. "Who does Wilson think he is?" House asked himself while pacing his office. "Going out of town and not telling me what he's _really_ up to..."

"Did you ever think that maybe I just wanted some alone time?" Wilson kidded, stuffing his hands in his pockets and laughing at House's surprised look.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!"

"Your door was open."

"Doesn't mean I wanted you to come through it."

"So you really want to know where I went?"

"Just the why. Details are just a waste of brain space."

"There actually was no 'why' this time. I just...had to get away from here for a while."

"Get away from _here_, or get away from someone. And when I say 'someone', I mean someone other than me."

Wilson shrugged his shoulders. "I was trying to me more spontaneous."

"Please... spontaneous is for people who date." Then the lightbulb over House's brain clicked. "The girl in radiology?"

"Brittany."

"Are we in grade school? She's like, what, twelve?"

"Twenty-four. And she really liked the long weekend."

House frowned, "It was almost two weeks."

"Looooooong, long weekend." Wilson chuckled, leaving House to reveal in the information.

**and with that, i bid you all farewell for a while. i have another in mind... so don't fret! it's going to be less on the medical side, and more on the drama side though. i like drama. it makes everything so...non boring. **

**anyhoo... hoped i gave enough closure on all the characters. **

**ta!**

**Ruby**


	12. UPDATE!

**Author Note:**

My next "House, M.D." installment has been added to the trilogy. It's called "Playing House" and is going to be centered around loads and loads of drama. just tons. if that stuff makes you sick, this isn't the story for you...

thanks! and hope you read!

xRuby Dustx


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